Castles of the Trail of the Eagles' Nest. Castle in Pieskowa Skala

2. Eagles’ Nests is a
system of 25 castles
and watchtowers
guarding old Polish
border with Kingdom
of Czech . They are
located on
inaccessible
calcareous rocks of
the KrakowCzestochowa
Upland.

3. Eagles’ Nests’ Trail – is a tourist trail in Poland
which runs through Silesian and Malopolskie
voivodeship (county). The trail goes from Krakow
to Czestochowa and it is 163 km long.
Idea of founding Eagles' Nests Trail was initiated
by Kazimierz Sosnowski in 1948. Two years later
trail was created but during next years it was
changed many times to show the most attractive
areas of the Krakow – Czestochowa Upland.

5. In the middle ages Polish king Casimir III The Great
created a fortified system of castles and
watchtowers which guarded Polish borders and
trade routes.
Castle in Ogrodzieniec

6. Castle in Pieskowa Skala is
located on the area of
Ojcowski National Park on
Kraków – Częstochowa
Upland.
Castle, previously gothic, was
built in the middle of 14th
century by Casimir The Great
in place of a former wooden
building.
Castle has a shape of
trapezoid. There is a beautiful
courtyard from the end of
16thcentury. It is decorated
with twenty-one masks.
The castle is also known from
fifty-six meters deep well
which is cut in the rocks.

7. Where does the name of a castle
come from?
In the Middle Ages there was a
beautiful girl called Dorotka
(Dorothy). She was in love with brave
and young knight. He was poor so
her family forced her to marry old but
rich owner of the castle. However
the knight still visited her in the
castle pretending to be a musician.
One day the couple was caught. The
knight was killed and Dorotka was
imprisoned. She was saved by her
dog which was bringing food to her
cell. When her husband died she was
set free and from that time the
castle is called Pieskowa Skala
(Dog's Rock) to honor her faithful
dog.

10. Herkules Club is one of the
most characteristic
natural rock sculptures in
Poland. You can see it near
the Pieskowa Skala castle.
It was formed by activity of
water and wind. It is 25
meters high.
This rock had different
names in the past. They
were refering to the
legends about it.

11. One of the legends says that in
the past a bad wizard called Jan
Twardowski signed the
agreement with a Devil.
According to it the Devil was
supposed to fulfill his three
wishes and in return Twardowski
would give him his soul. One of
the Twardowski’s orders for the
Devil was moving to the area of
Ojcowski Park a very big rock and
placing it upside down. Devil
made it and that is the origin of
the rock called today the
Herkules Club.

12. According to the another legend
in the past Ojcowski Park was a
place of activity of the dragon.
The dragon was eating cattle
belonging to local people or
abducting young ladies.
King Krak from Cracow became
so angry with it that he came to
Ojcow and killed the dragon
using a big club. Then he placed
it in the entrance to Ojcowska
Valley as a warning to everyone
who was travelling to Cracow
with bad intentions.

14. 
Authors:
Martyna Bilska
Neli Skorżyńska
Dominik Franik
Piotrek Hudzik